Ask any single parent what are the tough bits about being a single parent and one of the answers you will hear time and time again is money. I know for myself it’s so hard juggle the money to clothe and feed two children on my earnings. Then just as you think you may be learning how to juggle, something comes along like the car failing its MOT and puts your bank balance into zeros. Then there’s the ‘but I need these shoes, all my friends have them’ bit you get from the children too. The cold side of me would say tough. But I was that child once too that couldn’t have the cool things and had the mickey taken out of something I was wearing more than once.
First bit of advice is to not ignore it. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away; if anything it makes matters worse.
If you have a lot of debt it might be best to talk to a debt company. They can help you and give you the best advice forward.
Avoid going to loan companies and load sharks as this isn’t the answer and will only give you a short term solution, rather a long term solution meaning you have to deal with an even worse situation later. It is also important to keep an eye on whether, as they grow up and deal with their own money, your kids might feel financial pressure. It’s so easy to get a quick-fix of money both online and offline these days. Unbelievably one online loan company is currently facing questions over lending to children under 18. Talking as a family and having money issues out in the open, should encourage your children grow into money-responsible adults.
Spend some time writing down everything you have to pay out each month. And I mean everything. Kids school dinner money, rent, electric…..you get the idea. Then write down everything you have coming in. Take your outgoings away from your income figure. Hopefully you still have a positive number but if you have a minus figure or your positive figure is low then you will have to have a hard look at your outgoings.
Look through all the things you could cut back on. This all may sound a bit obvious but sometimes writing it all down makes you realise how much money you actually have available at the end of the month and is probably different figure to the one that’s in your head.
The other thing I do is to keep an on-going note of all my income and out goings in an excel sheet. I’m not kidding when I say it’s for the whole year. If I spend an extra tenner next week I know what impact it has on my bank balance for the rest of the year. Yes it takes a bit of time to set up but once set up it only takes a few minutes each money to make sure my bank account and excel sheet tally up.
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